1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to beverage dispensing apparatus. More particularly the invention concerns a novel apparatus for preparing and dispensing whipped beverages.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Typically, restaurants, including fast food restaurants, offer a variety of soft drinks with their meal services. The soft drinks generally comprise a combination of syrup, carbonated water, or tap water. Certain types of soft drinks are dispensed in a whipped condition. In the prior art, the whipping step was typically accomplished using mechanical whipping means such as one or more propeller like blades which are rotated at a relatively high rate of speed to whip the mixture of syrup and water. Exemplary of this type of apparatus is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,401 issued to Fox et al.
The rotating blade type of whipping apparatus is undesirable for several reasons. In the first place, if the mechanical portions of the apparatus are not continuously cleaned, the apparatus may jam and fail. Additionally, the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) makes mandatory at least daily cleaning of the prior art whipping apparatus and such cleaning is costly and time consuming. Further, the prior art mechanical mixing devices are typically quite expensive, are somewhat unreliable and generally require continual maintenance. During washing and maintenance, the apparatus is, of course, out of service and cannot be used to accomplish beverage dispensing thus causing costly downtime.
The thrust of the present invention is to provide a novel apparatus for producing and dispensing whipped soft drinks, hot chocolate and like beverages that do not require the use of a mechanical whipping mechanism. More particularly, the apparatus of the present invention efficiently accomplishes the whipping and mixing step by directing a collimated stream of water toward an intersection point within a vented mixing chamber to which a stream of syrup is also strategically directed.
In one embodiment of the invention, the mixing chamber is formed interiorly of a mixing block and the collimated streams of water and syrup are directed toward the intersection point at a velocity sufficient to effectively accomplish the desired whipping action. Simultaneously, air drawn into the mixing chamber through a strategically located air passageway prevents a vacuum buildup within the chamber.